BY Sunnivie Brydum

October 30 2013 12:15 PM ET

E.W. Jackson, the southern baptist minister who is running for lieutenant governor alongside antigay, antichoice Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli, told the audience at a 2011 Virginia Family Foundation summit that when the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring open service by gays and lesbians was repealed that year, the Almighty God prepared to smite the U.S. military.

"How in the world can we expect our military to be blessed by the hand of almighty God if we allow our military to become the equivalent of Sodom and Gomorrah?" Jackson asked, incredulous in a videotaped speech posted Wednesday by Right Wing Watch. "God is not pleased."

Jackson has a longhistory of rabidly homophobic comments, and although he made the "Sodom and Gomorrah" comparison back in 2011, it's important to remember exactly where this candidate stands as polls show the Virginia gubernatorial race tightening in advance of the election on November 5. Jackson alleges that his past antigay statements have been "taken out of context."

Longtime LGBT activist David Mixner cites a new Quinnipac poll that has Cuccinelli and Jackson just four percentage points behind the democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe. While Virginian women support McAuliffe by a 13-point margin — not surprising given Cuccinelli's unwavering quest to restrict abortion in the state and criminalize consensualanal and oral sex between adults — Cuccinelli enjoys a 6-point lead among men in Virginia, according to Quinnipac.